Wikia Search is to take on the big three search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN) in the next couple of weeks. With the dominance of the top three, it is going to take nothing short of a miracle to upset the current status quo. Enter Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. Wales launched the popular […]
Tech
YouTube’s OK for scholars, non-profits and the queen
What do Marilyn Manson, the Testical Festival and Queen Elizabeth have in common? They’re all on YouTube. No longer only the domain of the cute, the weird and the insanely boring (think family holiday videos), YouTube is becoming a platform for information dissemination and community engagement for more serious content. Scholars, international organisations and the […]
The takeaway society
One thing that really surprised me about the United Kingdom when I first moved across was the number of furnished homes that were for rent. One hardly comes across that in South Africa where most people accumulate their own living things. It’s not uncommon for the locals to pack a few boxes, tuck them under […]
Using MXit to learn
MXit, the very cheap, very popular mobile instant messaging (MIM) application (that is actually a lot more), is coming of age. To clear the way for the rest of the discussion, I am aware of the dangers and risks of MXit: addicts — teens and working people — who spend hours a day tap-tapping their […]
SA leads in gaming industry
In South Africa, you can get Springbok colours for PC, console and mobile gaming. Furthermore, the gaming industry surpassed the movie industry worldwide in terms of revenue a year ahead of analysts’ expectation. In the United States, the average age of gaming is 45. These statements are all placed right at the top of this […]
In Steve we trust — maybe
During my search through cyberspace to find the best live reports on Steve Jobs’s keynote speech at Macworld yesterday, I came across an ad that had the caption “In Steve we trust”. Very funny. See it on the Popular Mechanics website. It’s entertaining writing about Apple and possibly even — dare one? — mentioning something […]
Am I irrelevant?
Have I allowed myself to become outdated, irrelevant, inconsequential and stuck in a dark corner of the early 2000s? Has technology passed me by and been handed on to a younger generation of smart, happening geeks? My friend Vincent called me up some months back and told me, in effect, that I have. “You’re wasting […]
There’s no free lunch, not even online
Ever used Google? How about the Firefox browser? Or maybe you are Facebook fan? Enjoy reading Thought Leader? Or maybe you have something against using free stuff? Chances are, you love free stuff. And that is a good thing. But it is a problem for all the business suits peering over the shoulders of all […]
Apple has something in the air
The suffix “-ology denotes a field of study or academic discipline. Appleologists, as mentioned in Ars Technica, would therefore be people studying the field of Apple. Contrary to logic and belief, there are many who could fit this description. As the buzz about Macworld 2008, Apple’s annual shindig, is building to a crescendo, the air […]
Unpredictions for the SA web in 2008
It’s quite possible that I’m no good at short-term industry predictions and that this post is a ruse to avoid them, but my built-in BS filter (at least partially informed by a healthy serving of Nassim Taleb and Phil Rozenzweig) tells me that if you took a big enough sample of the informed and considered […]
Two emerging trends we need to foster
I’ve done my fair share of predicting trends and telling people which trends to watch for their business and marketing goals. However, these trends are all for the benefit of certain individuals or companies. What about the average man? I feel we need to foster “trends” that are really important to the sustainability and growth […]
Beware — the sneaky bots are everywhere
Every time I write about privacy and security on the internet I get a whole bunch of people who accuse me of paranoia. They maintain I am looking for conspiracy theories — if you have nothing to hide, then why worry who is following you on the internet? Besides which, I’ve been told, as consumers […]